We have just taken delivery of our new exhibition stand. Can you spot the latest member of the Arithmo team.

We need a name, any suggestions?

I can’t believe we are in March already. The first 2 months of the year have flown by.

We have been spending a lot of time digesting the feedback we gain from our customers, looking at both the positive and most importantly the negative.

It is my experience that people are reluctant to be negative about a product or service. I am guilty of this myself. How many times have you been asked by a waiter, ‘Is everything to your liking?” for you to reply ‘Fine’ when in fact you want to politely tell him that steak was over cooked or the service poor. How does that help the restaurant improve?

It is our aim to make Arthmo one of the best online bookkeeping systems for the small business. So when we ask our users ‘is everything to your liking?’ we want them to be honest. We won’t be offended, upset or angry, we will in fact be grateful. Without this feedback it will be very difficult if not impossible to make one of the easiest to use bookkeeping systems available to small business’s.

So if we ask for your feedback, please help us, help you, the user.

After it taking me 40 miles to complete a 20 mile journey, getting stuck on the M62 for 2 hours I finally made it to Huddersfield in one piece.

Why Huddersfield you may ask. Well this is the home of SimplyBiz. We have been working closely with SimplyBiz for the last few months and last October we launched a branded version of Arithmo known as Accounting Solutions. Aimed specifically at Independant Financial Advisers the system has been well received within the industry.

The aim of yesterdays trip was to spend some time with SimplyBiz’z 22 strong field staff. The time was well spent and all 22 left the meeting enthusiastic about the benefits Accounting Solutions can bring to their members. They will now be spreading the word amongst SimplyBiz’s 2,000 strong client databse.

This is a marvellous opportunity for all those involved, in particular the users.

All in all a great day.

We may only be 12 days in to the New Year but we have been working hard behind the scenes on improving Arithmo’s features.

This afternoon an update to the invoice template has gone live. Users can now upload their business logo, change the font and have greater control over the text shown on their invoices. As with all things we have tried to keep this process as easy as possible making the bookkeeping for small business’s straight forward.

Happy New Year to you all.

Its fair to say that 2009 was a challenging economic period for most business’s. Good products or services, hard work and a bit of luck were essential for survival. I like to think that at Arithmo we had a bit of all three of these during 2009.

Moving in to 2010 we have added to our sales force with a new recruit arriving on the 4 January, adding to the two new members of the team that joined us in Late 2009. The very early signs are that the sales team will be kept busy. In addition to this an existing accounting software vendor will be working with us to promote Arithmo. More news on this will follow….

On the development front we will continue to add new features and tweek the existing system, it is our continued aim to make Arithmo the easiest online bookkeeping system for the small business. Of course we cannot achieve this without the feedback of our users, so please let us have your comments.

Have a prosperous new year.

Mike

I was at the inaugural Business Cloud 9 Summit earlier in the week, at the uber-swanky Lancaster London Hotel.

This was an opportunity for enterprises to hear from big cloud software providers such as Salesforce.com and NetSuite. Being run by Sift Media, it was a slick, well organised affair.

My main reason to attend was a “fringe” session, set up so accounting software vendors such as Arithmo could sit and talk pretty informally with Accountants. This went pretty well, and it’s real-world feedback that we need.

Since the session, there has been a lot of online discussion about its merits. I found it useful, but it could have been even better. Here is a good  are some of the comments being made, including some from yours truly…

http://biztwozero.com/Home/486 

http://www.accountingweb.co.uk/topic/technology/showdown-business-cloud-summit

As from the 1 January 2010 the UK’s standard rate of VAT will increase from 15% to 17.5%.

This change does not represent a problem for Arithmo users. The VAT rates applied throughout the system are date driven.  Ensuring that users do not need make any changes to their system, Arithmo takes care of everything.  For those users that use the repeat transaction function then at the point of posting the transaction Arithmo will check that the correct VAT rate is applied, if not users are guided to ensure the correct rate is used.

We have not forgotten about those that calculate their VAT using the flat rate scheme. At the point of calculation users not only choose the rate applicable but can also choose multiple rates for the period. Not only accommodating the change in rate as at 1 Jan 2010 but those whose flat changes mid period.

I have been asked to be a contributor to the excellent Start Up Donut blog. It’s a great place to get all sorts of information about running a small business, with guidance, forums, articles and lots more.  

My first post seemed to go down quite well, about an online tax scam. I’ll put more on as often as I can.

We are delighted to announce a partnership with leading compliance and business support services company SimplyBiz, to develop a system called  Accounting Solutions. 

This is an exclusive online accounting system that produces reports in exactly the same format as the GABRIEL return. This return is mandatory for IFAs and inclusion in an accounting package offers them significant help with FSA returns. 

The SimplyBiz Group was launched in 2002, and provides compliance and business support services to some 2,000 financial services firms and 5,000 individual advisers nationwide.  SimplyBiz is committed to delivering exceptional and relevant services for all IFAs, from the smaller practice through to the largest.  The SimplyBiz 2009 offering is stronger than ever with numerous enhancements including the PLUS package for larger or more complex practices.  Since launch SimplyBiz has continuously won various accolades and awards and was voted “Best IFA Network / Support Services provider” by Professional Adviser in both 2008 and 2009.

For more information go to accounting web.

We were at the Software Satisfaction Awards last night, at the magnificant Royal Courts of Justice, London.

Here is a report about the event http://www.businesszone.co.uk/topic/cloud-sweeps-sme-software-satisfaction-awards

Arithmo was in line for three awards, Web-based Accounting Software, Small business Accounting Software and Newcomer of the Year.

Although we were pipped at the post in each category, it was a thoroughly enjoyable evening in very grand surroundings.  Congratulations to all the winners.

We spoke to loads of people in our industry and we all know that Cloud solutions are gaining ground on traditional accounting software. Last night’s result demonstrates this.